Florida spending money estimates

[SecondUsername4me]

Calling all experts!

Flights, 13 days at International Drive, passes for Universal included. We will add on a day pass for Animal Kingdom (the only Disney Park we are interested in).

Other than this, how much would you say is needed for daily spend, to include:-

• A hefty breakfast (buffet places?)
• A snack and drink each at the park each day (as lunch)
• A hearty meal (eg 2 courses) nothing fancy, each evening (Park or International Drive area)
• couple of souvenirs each for the kids
• any extra must do days out (eg museums, water parks, other activities days outside of the theme parks)
• daily transport to/from the parks and other activities

We aren't "shoppers" so no budget needed for Malls etc. We don't need fine dining or themed character dining, we don't want to buy cheaper stuff like jeans/make up/perfume etc so don't need a budget for that.

Is there anything else I'm not including? I know I need to tip 20% for all meals, so add that in too, does that include buffet style too?

I'd be tempted to just go on AI holiday too. I had no idea the US has got so expensive.

If you miss that authentic theme park experience, just walk to the nearest bus stop and stand in a queue all day.

Wait and see what happens with the exchange rate, it may move and in a couple of years USA becomes more affordable.

I know it's comparing apples and oranges and I'd always envisaged taking the dc to florida some day. But 6k on just taxis/breakfasts/dinners/parking is untenable so it's off the table.

We haven't been since pre-covid (2019) so appreciate it will be more expensive now, but we didn't spend anywhere near 6k!

We are going again in August, family of 4. We are taking £2k (maybe a bit more) spending money for two weeks self catering. We're not going to starve to death, we'll just budget like we do normally! Obviously if you want to eat out 3 times a day, buy all the snacks, have a shopping spree and buy loads of souvenirs in the parks it's going to be super expensive, but it doesn't have to be.

Have you actually booked the hotel yet?

We.stayed at Springhill Suites (Vineland, but others available). The free continental breakfast and small kitchenette with fridge and small hob/microwave and cutlery etc saved us spending a lot of money on eating out.

We also ate off park at Bahama.Breeze, Chili's, Olive Garden etc as cheaper than on park.

We took water bottles.

Last time I was stateside it was around $20 a head for basic breakfast places eg Denny's (meal & drink but they are huge portions). Take water bottles in with you plus those super concentrated squash drops (take from U.K. they don't sell them there) if your dc won't drink plain water. Buy crisps etc from a supermarket and take with you. Look online for coupons, buy one get one frees etc for the chains on international drive. Supermarkets and food markets often have hot delis serving full meals that you could eat in your hotel room, look on Uber eats or similar for take aways some nights and buy in drinks from supermarkets. There's quite a few aldis!

Every time we are in the USA we burn through money, it's so expensive due to taxes and tipping on top plus entrance fees are crazy prices compared to Europe. Water is free though.

@TheThingIsYeah

It's never been cheap! I lived there 20 years ago and food was $$$ then. People on holidays get fixated by a few things being cheaper eg Levi's plus the food is inflated but savvy locals get coupons, they used to come through our door monthly, I guess they are electronic now

Does your £2k also have to cover all the things the OP’s does though?

She needs to cover transport costs, meals out (no cooking facilities in the hotel), tickets for animal kingdom and entry to museums, water parks and other activities outside the theme parks.

I just don't see how that could possibly done on a budget of £35 per person per day, which is what £2k amounts to. Their day passes for animal kingdom alone will likely be over £100pp for one day.

Went in 2015 as a family of 4 and a baby and spent £2000 for 2 weeks.
We didn't really eat out only a few McDonald's and subway. I filled 2 suitcases with snacks, pasta, tins and cereal with a list of everything for customs
We are a ASD family so this suited our needs.
At least half of that 2k was clothes and toys.
We did fly virgin upper so that did give us plenty of baggage allowance

We are going again next year and I'm hoping to do the same. I expect I will need to spend more now so we are taking £2500 and expect most will be food and parking. We will still take food but are unfortunately not flying upper again so not sure how much I will be able to take.

I think I all depends on you and your family. To us eating out would be hell and obviously others would hate self catering. We don't do any character meals as my kids couldn't cope with it

@TheCatWithGreenEyes

Your £2000 in 2015 would have been about $3100 (maybe a bit more or less depending on exactly when you exchanged). Your £2500 this time will be about $3100 dollars (if the exchange rate stays broadly the same) so you aren’t actually taking any more money than the last time you went. This is worth bearing in mind if prices have risen as much as others are saying.

@Takoneko
Yeah I know but this time I wont spend £1000 on clothes and toys so hopefully we will do it. I could double it but it makes me feel sick spending that sort of money just on food.
It didn't realise how much it had gone up when I booked it.

I’d say minimum $300/day but you can easily spend more.

We went this summer and the prices have shot up. 4 of us for breakfast admittedly all adults. (Youngest 17yr idk girl with a small appetite) usually at least $70. Denny’s was cheapest place for breakfast and that with tip was still about $70.
ihop used to be cheap but bit now. We queue for golden corral a buffet to open for breakfast and it opened and they said they were skipping breakfast and going straight to lunch so we left and went to Denny’s.
hitels often have buffet types. We stayed in one of the Rosen Inns this time and we had a small kitchenette area to make breakfast or meals which was literally a two ring hot plate a microwave and a fridge. So we didn’t eat anything there but we did go to the restaurant once. It was $18 each from memory and have to say we were naughty and didn’t tip as service was terrible. They did have mickey waffles though.

there used to be a lot of buffet restaurants on international drive but they’ve all disappeared.

the nicest meal we had was at cheesecake factory. The orange chicken was amazing!

we budgeted $100 plus tip per meal so $300 a day. And then another $100 for drinks and snacks a day. A bottle of water was usually around $4.

tbh we wouldn’t have saved any money by shopping and eating just cereal bars or pop tarts or fruit for breakfast as the supermarkets are expensive. We visited a large target away from the tourist areas and it was still as expensive as the likes of walgreens or cvs. Food is not cheap in America.

if you’re going in abs out of the parks look at the refillable drinks deals as we saved a little bit of money that way. It’s so hot that you really don’t want Luke warm water or soft drinks if you take them in your self.

we are shoppers as a family and so spent quite a lot of money especially as we had a week in New York before the Orlando stop. That probably skewed our thinking as well as New York is so expensive easily double Orlando prices.

tbh we wouldn’t have saved any money by shopping and eating just cereal bars or pop tarts or fruit for breakfast as the supermarkets are expensive.

We were on site but popped to target by Uber one night and stocked up on doughnuts and that kind of thing, it's not THAT expensive, fresh food is but processed food like doughnuts are quite easy to come by reasonably, we found we could skip breakfast and just have a brunch to satisfy breakfast and lunch (with the added benefit of it being quieter at that time) with the snacks keeping us going. With the hot weather we could quite comfortably only have 2 meals, and I wouldn't want to have spent that much time out of our day eating.

We're going in May next year and booked a Sheraton Villa. I've earmarked £5k for food. Some of the tips on here are great!

Getting take aways and eating at the villa, buying kids meals from quick service, not tipping counter service will save a fair chunk.

I see from a map that there are quite a few Aldi's which are reasonably priced compared to other options.

😂at the people who take food in their suitcase. That's quite extreme when you're going all that way.

We used to go to the USA frequently and a 'normal' type of rate was about 1.5/6. So you kind of would think ok its about 2/3 comparing pounds to dollars.

I remember one trip it was 2 and I went on a massive spending spree!

But since brexit it has tanked and never gone back to anywhere near that. Not even like 1.4 or 5! Last year was awful

Our last trip to Florida was on a tight budget, we took cash with us, divided out to what we could spend each day, if we had money over which we often did will rolled it over for the next day. We used the I ride, had some Buffet dinners, and some much nicer dinners, some takeaways in our room, breakfast in our room, bought food at the supermarket, basics like bread rolls cereals are very expensive, much more expensive than here, took snacks to the parks, that is ok, food was very expensive we when last went, we bought a couple of lunches in the theme parks, but they weren’t great quality and very expensive. We had a fab holiday.

Kids meals in quick service saves a lot. And they're much better value!

It does sound funny but honestly me packing a couple of kelloggs variety packs and some cereals bars I reckon saved me hundreds of pounds over 2 weeks as it meant we werent going out to buy a breakfast for everyone each day which would have been $$$! We spent £1200 in total and that included some souvenirs.

4k easily.
Me and dh decided to never mention it again once we were home.

Has anyone used the Disney dining package? It seemed very expensive when I looked at it, but doesn't look so bad compared to some of these prices!

I've got family in Florida, not Orlando but near the coast. Grew up going when you got $2 to £1 exchange rate and everything was cheaper.

The last few times I've been (2015, 2017 and 2019) it's ridiculous prices.

We have 6 month old DD now and would like to take her when she's 5 or 6 and worked out we'd need £11k-£12k to take DD to Disney world for villa (we split cost with other family members who come), park tickets, food, flights, spending money and car hire for 2 weeks.

If you've got your heart on staying at a Disney hotel and eating within the Disney resort then it's good value.

If you are happy to stay offsite and eat offsite you will save a lot more money.

I really don't know how you're going to manage £35 per day per person. Is this just for food or £2000 for everything?

We booked the dining plan for next year before prices went up recently. It seems like good value compared to the prices mentioned on here and we won’t have to worry about money once out there (other than tips for the table service meals and spending money).

Yes the eat all you want buffets used to be good

Shoneys or Perkins and ponderosa steak house

I haven't really but it seemed like it might be the most relaxing option with DDs 6&9.